The present invention relates to a network computer which operates upon downloading programs and data from a server (server computer), and a file transfer method applied to the network computer.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 10-048261 filed on Feb. 27, 1998, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In recent years, new computer architectures called "Network Computer" have been developed instead of personal computers.
The network computer is designed to be used based on connection to a network. All programs and data necessary for data processing are downloaded from a server via a network. Each network computer operating as a client computer, therefore, need not have programs and data, and can flexibly cope with, e.g., updating of an Operating System (OS) and application programs. As a result, total costs of ownership can be drastically reduced.
However, as stated above, the network computer is designed to be used based on connection to a network, and is not usually designed to be used in a mobile environment where the computer is disconnecting to the network. It is, therefore, necessary to develop a new network computer which can perform the same operations as in the online state in which the computer is connected to the network, even if the computer operates in the offline state in which the computer is not connected to the network.